Tag: women

Over the past 6 months, Hackney Laces has been working with Sisterhood, a brilliant social enterprise that builds confidence in young women, and London Football Journeys, a charity that uses film and football to strengthen communities.

Through workshops and co-design sessions, Sisterhood has worked with the girls teaching them how to film and edit. And, empowering them to tell their stories as female footballers.

When I joined Nice and Serious, out of twenty people I was one of four women. It seemed strange to me that an agency that’s so values driven in their work would have such a gender imbalance. After speaking to the team about it, I was told that we get so many more male applicants than female. This is a reflection of the industry but it shouldn’t define the industry or be accepted. So, Nice and Equal was born as an experiment to understand what some of the underlying issues were and if there was anything we could do to fix this.

There are 146 numbers saved in my phone with the prefix ‘JAFC’ — Just Another Football Club. When I set up Hackney Laces 6 years ago, that’s what we were. A single club for girls in my borough. And now it’s morphed in to so much more.

This is a letter by a woman (@bitchwhocodes) to her niece is filled with both frustration and hope. As I was reading it, I couldn’t help but replace the word ‘female developer’ to lots of other male dominated vocations: Footballer; Engineer; Pilot; Supreme Court Judge. And the message is still the same. Male or female, it shouldn’t matter so long as you’re capable of doing your job and you do it well.

I’ve been incredibly lucky to have sport in my life. I’ve also been lucky to have a really supportive mum (and aunt) who drove me to practises and games, made sure I had the right equipment, nutrition and encouragement. I’ve also always been given the opportunity to play. Where I grew up, there were more sports activities taking place than I had hours in a day. And I had equal opportunity to play. Yet, in so many other places, both in Canada and in the world, this is not the case.

It took me a while to decide where I wanted to run the pilot – more importantly, which area lacked sport and community based opportunities for young women (between the ages of 13-17). I met with football folk in Hackney, Camden, Islington and Haringay. After meeting
Pete Blackwell, the London Manager for ‘Reachout!’ a mentoring charity, I was sold on Hackney.

Pete agreed to partner with me and provide pitch space at Petchey Academy where he runs Reachout FC.

Now that the 7 weeks have ended, I’m stoked to say that it has been a success.

Some numbers:

– 21 different players on the register, 10 who consistently come (3 or more weeks)

– 7 text messages, all from different players that read:“You’ve been sent this message by 07xxxxxxxxx asking you to call them back as they are out of credit. (Normal charges apply)”

– 4 players who have been there every single week. Amazing dedication.

– 3 brand new shiny players who have never kicked a ball in their life

– 2 weeks of standing outside Petchey when school got let out with flyers, spamming random school kids with leaflets about the session (note: this was on the advice of the school’s groundsman told me to stand outside at 330pm and hand out some info. He said this will be a surefire way to boost numbers. So this is what I did. I stuffed flyers into the hands of school kids with with my email and phone number. Aside from me feeling like a stereotypical overly-enthusiastic North American, it was good. Numbers doubled after doing so. Result.)

– 0 footballs/equipment of any sort lost (I’m pointing this out because it’s normally very rare)

One thing that really surprised me was despite some brutal weather, players would still rock up. As a footballer myself, I know all too well how demotivating it can be playing in the cold, wet British winter.

I could ramble on forever about all of the great stuff that has gone on in the pilot but I’ll stop here and save that for a later post.

Here’s what’s next:

– I’ll be continuing with the session, Tuesday nights at Petchey (working towards a friendly 7-aside match against a nice, beginner to intermediate level side)
– There’s a website on the way alongside the branding, partners and all that jazz
– The membership scheme will be finalised so you and anyone you know can become part-owner of this club for the tiny fee of £10 per year. What a bargain.
– I’m making a rota of footballers (male and female) come out and help with sessions.
– Getting a few of the older girls (16 year olds) on a coaching Level 1 course.

Special mentions:

Trying to get something off the ground is hardwork. Really. And without certain peoples’ support this would likely still be something I’d only dream about doing. So here is my first honour role of lovely people – and there will be plenty more to be added to this. It’s only the beginning.

– Naresh Ramchandani, who aside from having top notch football banter, basically convinced me to quit working for him to pursue this. Oh and did I mention he has re-named and branded it?
– @nataliedoyle82 from the London FA for spreading the word
– Pete Blackwell and the crew at Reachout for being crazy helpful and encouraging.
– Orlando from Actis, my newly found mentor. He didn’t bat an eye lid when I pounced on him at a mentoring matchmaking night put on by Unltd.
– Keisha Graham Benjamin (her initials are KGB – funny, right?) for rallying together all the teenaged girls she knows in Hackney. Including multiple members of her family. And a few circus performers.

If you or anyone you know would like to get involved, please do get in touch!

Ps- I gave Glove Love to the team as a Christmas present. It was very well received.

PPs- Apologies for the pictures quality. They were taken on a borrowed Blackberry in the rain.